FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Fending off insider threats. Contributor Jeffrey Bennett explains, “It is tempting to pay homage to the thought of insider threats, but those who successfully deter insider threats realize these thoughts take critical analysis to put them into action. Consider the fortresses many defense contractor organizations have become. Best practices to protect organizational, employee, materiel and cyber assets from outside actors are evident. Such careful contemplation must be made to counter the harmful accidental and deliberate actions of a trusted employee.”
2. Special Access and need-to-know. Also from contributor Jeffrey Bennett: “A Special Access Program (SAP) is established to control access, distribution, and provide protection for sensitive classified information beyond that normally required. This is a high state of enforced need-to-know, and only a minimum number of cleared employees are given access to SAP information. For example, those with SAP access have clearances at the SECRET and TOP SECRET levels. Conversely, not all those cleared for SECRET and TOP SECRET have access to SAP information.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. ISIS’ unhindered march forward. Reuters’ Aylan Jean Yackley and Alexander Dziadosz report, “Islamic State insurgents pushed on with their assault on a Syrian border town on Thursday despite coalition air strikes meant to weaken them, sending thousands more Kurdish refugees into Turkey and dragging Ankara deeper into the conflict. . . . Islamic State fighters have taken control of hundreds of villages around Kobani, beheading civilians in a bid to terrorize villagers into submission, and have advanced to within kilometers of the town on three sides.” See also from LongWarJournal.Org, “Pro-al Qaeda ideologues propose truce between Islamic State, rivals.”
2. Remember Ukraine? The fight continues. AP’s Darko Vojinovic reports from Donetsk, “Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine advanced Wednesday on the government-held airport in Donetsk, pressing to seize the key transportation hub even as the two sides bargained over a troop pullout under a much-violated truce. Fighting for the airport has raged for months as the insurgents have tried to dislodge the government forces using it to shell rebel positions in Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city.”
3. Mullah Omar—America has lost. Khaama.Com reports, “The Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has claimed victory in Afghan war through his message issued on the occasion of Eid. . . . Mullah Omar said the United States has lost all the possibilities to win the war, claiming that the ‘Americans are entangled in Afghanistan in a long war of their history. The astronomical military and financial losses and the dwindling of America’s status credibility at world’s level are signs indicating her decline. The jittery-haunted rulers of the White House are trying, in a state of despondency, to win this disadvantageous war.’ He called on Taliban ranks to continue with their jihadic resistance and urged them to focus on keeping unity among the Jihadi flanks.”
4. Secret Service wrap-up. McClatchyDC.Com’s Lesley Clark reports, “Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned Wednesday amid mounting congressional criticism and as new revelations of agency lapses convinced President Barack Obama it was time for new leadership. Joseph Clancy, a former special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service who retired in 2011, was named as acting agency director. . . . Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will take over an ongoing investigation into the fence-jumping incident at the White House and report his findings by Nov. 1 . . . .”
5. Military healthcare—good is just not good enough. Defense Media Activity’s Cheryl Pellerin reports, “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered improvements in the Military Health System, saying a 90-day review of the system that found it comparable in access, quality and safety to care offered on average in the private sector is not good enough for service personnel and their families. . . . Hagel said he’s directing the department to take steps to ensure that the entire military health care system is not just an average system but a leading one.” See also from DefenseOne.Com, “Review Finds the Military’s Health System Is Good . . . .”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. NASA delivers $20 billion potential. GovConWire.Com reports, “NASA has awarded 56 contracts under a potential 10-year, $20 billion vehicle that covers information technology products and services for the space agency’s centers and other federal agencies. . . . [T]he Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V program includes a five-year base period for work between Nov. 1 and Oct. 31, 2019, as well as a five-year option to extend work through Oct. 31, 2024. SEWP aims to help NASA and its partners in government and industry access IT and computer technologies, scientific and engineering processing functions, network equipment and peripherals.” See also from FederalTimes.Com, “NASA awards SEWP V IT contracts.”
2. There is a season—$19 million DARPA TERN Phase II. MilitaryAerospace.Com Editor John Keller reports, “Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., have announced a $19 million contract modification to AeroVironment for the second phase of the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) maritime UAV program. AeroVironment joins the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems segment in El Segundo, Calif. for the second phase of the TERN maritime UAV program. The two companies won their TERN Phase II contracts one day apart from one another.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Micro sensors . . . really, really micro. Medium.Com’s Steve Weintz reports, “Once a science-fiction idea, the smart dust concept caught the imaginations of geeks and investors a few years ago. When Pister coined the term in the late 1990s, the concept attracted funding from DARPA, the Pentagon’s advanced research outfit. . . . Thousands of motes, each generating a tiny bit of laser light, could transmit information to overhead drones by working together as a big distributed ‘flashlight.’ Or they could link up into a big low-frequency radio antenna to beam out their signals.”
2. Navy SEAL’s Ghost Boat. DefenseOne.Com’s Patrick Tucker reports, “The so-called GHOST boat represents a breakthrough in naval design. There’s no vessel that looks quite this or performs the same way in the water. The diamond-shaped hull sits atop a pair of struts extending to two torpedo-like engines (the makers call these tubular foils.) Together they pull the boat through the water rather than push it from behind via a rudder, which makes it more difficult to detect via radar, hence the ‘ghost’ moniker.”
3. Putin v. Hackers. UPI.Com’s Ed Adamczyk reports from Moscow, “President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday a sharp rise in Internet cyber attacks in Russia was noted since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. He told a meeting of his Security Council there are no plans to restrict Internet access in Russia but called for ‘a range of additional measures in the area of information security.’ . . . he was angered by revelations from the U.S. National Security Agency, and by American political leaders who have suggested Internet surveillance is legal if social network servers are on U.S. soil.”
4. Twenty-one great Christmas gifts. Wired.Com’s staff offers “21 Awesomely Well-Designed Products We’re Dying to Own.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Real men don’t lose elections: “Former President Jimmy Carter claimed Wednesday that he would have been re-elected and beaten Ronald Reagan in 1980 if had been more ‘manly’ in his dealings with Iran. . . . Carter repeated his belief that the failed mission to free American hostages held in Tehran killed his chances, but then added that had he gone to war, America would have rewarded him with a second term in 1980. ‘I could’ve been re-elected if I’d taken military action against Iran, shown that I was strong and resolute and, um, manly and so forth,’ said the former president, who has established himself as a world human rights leader. . . . Carter said he also had to ignore Rosalynn’s pleadings to ‘do something.’”
2. Boehner + Jeb = 2016: “It’s been a yearlong courtship, but no one quite knows if it will pay off. For the past year, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been wooing his longtime friend Jeb Bush to jump into the 2016 presidential race, even as he has shunned potential Tea Party rivals like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. . . . The Speaker’s preference for yet another Bush White House run is partly political, partly personal. He sees Bush as undeniably the strongest, most viable candidate who could pull the party together after a bruising primary and take on a formidable Hillary Clinton . . . . And the two men are aligned politically, hailing from the same centrist strand of the GOP.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “We all know about jihadists, but what about those waging an ‘anti-jihad’?” Reuters contributor Karima Bennoune explains, “The fact is, away from the media spotlight, thousands wage daily battles in their own countries against what President Obama called a ‘network of death.’ Unfortunately, jihadists make headlines while those who wage the anti-jihad rarely do. After all, everyone has heard of Osama bin Laden, but few know of those standing up to would-be bin Ladens across the globe. There is a long, untold history of brave individuals of Muslim heritage who have challenged extremists.”
2. “Hong Kong: Defying the Chinese Dream.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Zarina Banu argues, “A key reason for Beijing’s refusal to compromise is the likely unacceptable concept that a bunch of fresh-faced students with smartphones should play a part in shaping China’s future. The Communist Party is a profoundly hierarchical polity that rules China from the top-down. The appeal by Hong Kong’s demonstrators to be given a chance to mould their own destiny won’t be gaining traction in Beijing any time soon.”
3. “U.S., China Should Cooperate In Space.” AviationWeek.Com’s staff argues, “The U.S. and Russia have remained partners in space because each knows how difficult and expensive it is to achieve each advance. The Chinese are intent on becoming a space power on a par with them. For many reasons, it is time to bring the Chinese—carefully—inside the tent.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Misdirected.
3. Hope strategy.
